Aurora officials told the Colorado Economic Development Commission on Thursday that Area Property Partners of New York will arrange financing for the $824 million project and that Rida Development Corp. of Houston will develop the 1,500-room hotel.

"We never gave up," said Wendy Mitchell, president and CEO of the Aurora Economic Development Council.

Marriott International, which will manage the property in conjunction with four existing Gaylord convention hotels, was key to getting the stalled project going.

Rida and Area are developing a $350 million, 1,000-room hotel in Houston that will operate as a Marriott Marquis. They also financed and built the 1,400-room Hilton Orlando and renovated a 1,200-room Hyatt Regency in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

"They are both strong companies, plus coupled with Marriott, it makes a good three-part team to move the project forward," said Kenneth Free, owner of Straightline Advisors, which provides consulting services on developing hospitality real estate.

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Still, Free said the project is a large one and carries substantial risks.

Colorado is much more seasonal than the other markets where Gaylord operates, and the Aurora site isn't a prime destination. The new hotel also risks draining convention business from existing properties, he cautioned.

The Downtown Denver Partnership last year opposed the Gaylord project, saying that heavy public incentives gave it an unfair advantage and citing a study that said about a third of its business would come from existing hotels. The partnership said Thursday it hasn't changed its position.

Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said the development will bring in visitors who wouldn't have otherwise come and that it represents an asset not just to Aurora but to the entire region.

"It brings new business. It is not recycling old business," he said, adding that the National Western Stock Show's decision to remain in Denver rather than relocate near the project has removed a major source of opposition.

Lee Neibart, CEO of Area Property Managers in New York, said the region lacks and needs a convention hotel on the scale Gaylord is proposing, one reason his firm has become involved.

Institutional investors are running out of existing developments to put their money into and are looking for new, large projects that have the potential to earn a higher yield for them, Free said.

"The market is very aggressive in the availability of debt capital," Neibart said.

Area plans to have the financing buttoned down by late summer, and Rida is in discussions with contractors interested in constructing what would be one of the country's largest convention hotels outside of Las Vegas.

"The Cherry Creek mall is about a million square feet, and this project will be 1.9 million square feet, so there is a lot of work to do before you start a project of that scale," Mitchell said.

Construction is expected to start in late 2014 or early 2015 on land within the 1,800-acre High Point development, with an opening planned for 2017.

Construction jobs should number about 1,200, while the hotel itself is expected to create 2,500 permanent positions, Mitchell said.

The revived Aurora hotel will be similar to what Nashville, Tenn.-based Gaylord Entertainment proposed before it left the development and management business to become a real estate investment trust called Ryman Hospitality Properties last year, said Ira Mitzner, Rida's president and CEO.

Matching the original plans is key for the project to keep $81.4 million in credits against future state sales taxes that the Colorado Economic Development Commission awarded Aurora under the Regional Tourism Act last May.

Those incentives are in addition to about $170 million in credits against future sales-tax obligations that Mitchell said Aurora is providing.

Gaylord sold its brand and management rights to its four conference hotels to Marriott International. Like Gaylord Entertainment before it, Marriott wants to offer its convention customers options beyond the properties it now oversees in the Nashville; Washington, D.C.; Orlando, Fla.; and Dallas areas.

"Everyone wants to come to Colorado, and we plan to build a hotel and conference center that will accommodate them," Mitzner said.

Rida and Marriott are also looking at ways to get more use out of the property during the times when convention visits are slower, Mitzner said.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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